


If logic beat hate (by only a little)

by allalrightagain



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Alternate Hogwarts House Sorting, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Book 1: Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone, Gen, Not Canon Compliant - Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-21
Updated: 2020-09-21
Packaged: 2021-03-08 01:47:03
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,151
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26587597
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/allalrightagain/pseuds/allalrightagain
Summary: In which the Dursleys treated Harry just as awfully as canon, but when the letter(s) came, things went a little different.
Relationships: Petunia Evans Dursley & Harry Potter
Comments: 9
Kudos: 61





	If logic beat hate (by only a little)

Their gut reaction is to shut that shit down, so they still trash that first letter and move him out of the cupboard, because if nothing else, they see the fact that someone knows he lives in the cupboard as a bad sign. But! The letters keep coming, and instead of Vernon going further and further off the rails, Petunia realizes that a) they wouldn’t have to deal with him for most of the year for the next seven years, b) then he’s not really their problem, and c) she has to know they can’t do magic out of school and thinks well at least less weird things will happen then, it’ll be _contained_. 

So she sits Harry down, gives him the letter, and proceeds to give the absolute bare minimum information about magic and the Wizarding world and his parents as possible. This does little to fix their relationship (not that either would wish to) and will absolutely make things worse later when Harry does learn the full stories, but right now it succeeds in preventing strange people from appearing on their doorstep, so she calls it a win. 

For now, Harry knows magic exists, he was a wizard like his parents, and he would go to Hogwarts. He knows his parents died not in a car crash, but as a result of this magic. 

Petunia very reluctantly takes him to the Leaky Cauldron, which she has been to only two or three times, twenty years ago, and has to tell Harry to keep an eye out for the pub because she knows she’ll never see it. She hates everything about this trip and this boy, but she tells herself over and over that she’ll get 9 months of nothing freakish, and that some things just can’t be helped, and she lives with herself. 

Together, without the beacon of Hagrid highlighting him, they look mostly like a Muggle-born first year and his mother, and they pass mostly unseen throughout Diagon Alley. Harry does a lot of it on his own, while Petunia waits outside. Petunia has a copy of his Gringotts key that was left to Harry through her... at some point. Maybe in that first letter? Maybe Petunia had to write to Dumbledore about shopping in Diagon Alley because she didn’t remember where to go and Dumbledore was so pleasantly surprised he sent the key along instead of an adult like he was planning. Harry doesn’t know and will never bother to ask. 

Harry gets his money and does his shopping under Petunia's watchful eye. He meets Malfoy while getting his robes, and while he still doesn’t make a great impression, he doesn’t insult Harry's savior, and Harry has no significant loyalty to the woman who kept this world from him and only fessed up to get him out of her house. But he drops a very important piece of information at Harry’s feet that Petunia is capable of answering. 

Harry leaves Madame Malkin’s and asks, “Aunt Petunia, do you know what House my parents were in?” And Petunia dithers back and forth, maybe out of hate or maybe using the last of her good will, tells him that Lily was a Gryffindor, and _that boy_ was a Slytherin. 

Harry, having no context for these words but ten long years being the only one referred to as “that boy,” very reasonably infers that she is talking about his parents, takes note of those two as possibilities, and moves on, not bothering to ask any more questions. 

Comforting is not the right word, but Harry feels something around reassured by Petunia's no nonsense manner when faced with the endless impossible things in Diagon Alley, and she is a vicious list follower, so Harry ends up with exactly the items on his list and nothing more. No pets (“it says optional!”), no elective reading books (like the one Harry was eyeing at the counter of Flourish and Blotts _For the New Witch or Wizard_ ), and no casual day wear robes (“where are you going to go? You'll be at that school or you'll be in our home and there's no room there for that nonsense”). 

Harry goes into Ollivanders by himself while Petunia waits outside with a very bad excuse of the shop being too small for both of them. He doesn’t bother to object. He is still Harry Potter, and he is still a difficult customer, and he is still chosen by holly and phoenix feather, and Mr. Ollivander remarks on all of this and his parentage besides, because some things will never change. 

But because some things do, before Harry can muster up the courage to ask why his wand is so curious— and maybe he never would, because Aunt Petunia has let him get away with far too many questions lately, and he'd hate to waste his luck on a rude question that will hardly tell him anything important— Petunia raps on the glass and Harry jumps to grab his final purchase and move on. 

The summer is still miserable but with the hope of more, and there is an uncomfortable standoff between Petunia and Harry. The Dursleys still drive Harry into London and Petunia walks him into Kings Cross to make sure he’s gone. She sees him through to the other side of the platform (“just walk straight through that wall” sounds a lot more like a cruel joke when said by your magic-hating aunt than the kind lady with a bunch of other kids) and once he’s out of sight she relaxes, walks back to the car, and allows herself a small, mean smile when she tells her husband they can go home now. 

Harry, meanwhile, is now faced with his Wizarding peers for the first time, even more woefully unprepared than he could have been with an introduction from even the most unprepared magical adult, and no matter how exciting it all is, he’s also a little terrified of magic and it’s consequences.

This Harry is still enamored with magic, still wants to be a part of everything, but is also a little afraid of it. This Harry does not know Voldemort’s name, or have opinions on what to call him, because this Harry was told that magic killed his parents, and this Harry didn’t have Hagrid to play savior from the Dursleys. This Harry had a spiteful girl who lost her sister twice over to magic, and grew up to take it out on her sister’s son. Most importantly, this Harry does not know to fear Slytherin specifically, to fear Voldemort and Dark Wizards. This Harry thinks his heritage is equal parts green and silver as it is red and gold. 

So this Harry walks up to the sorting hat just as brave and a little more scared, but a lot less spiteful— not that he knows it— and does not think “not Slytherin.”


End file.
